Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - #64: Jim Knight of Hard Rock Cafe: Leadership That Rocks

Episode Date: July 21, 2020

Jim Knight shares with us how each one of his passions have lead him to the path he is on today within the hospitality industry. He is now a leader in his space with innovative methods to yield results in teaching leadership, culture and service.  About The Guest: A Training & Development veteran for 30+ years, Jim Knight facilitates on a variety of interactive topics, including sessions around organizational culture, world-class service, building rock star teams, employee branding & engagement, performance management and T&D best practices.   Although Jim's first job was at Gatorland Zoo, he cut his teeth in the training field through the Hospitality industry, starting out as a restaurant staff-­level employee for Olive Garden and then Hard Rock Cafe. He eventually became the head of the School of Hard Rocks, running point on all learning & development functions for Hard Rock International.   Although part of a small training group that supported all cafe, hotel and casino properties, Jim Knight’s role at Hard Rock involved many facets of organizational training, including creating/managing all staff and management training materials & programs, facilitating its corporate university, overseeing management training locations, producing training DVD’s, directing company e-­Learning initiatives, facilitating leadership transitions and traveling to property locations to deliver on-­site classes & measure standards.   Jim is also the Best-Selling Author of Culture That Rocks: How to Revolutionize Your Company’s Culture, a how-to business book designed to amp up a brand in any industry. Entrepreneur Magazine listed the book as one of the "Top 5 Books That Will Transform Your Business".   Along with his business partner, Brant Menswar, Jim co-hosts a weekly podcast called, Thoughts That Rock, which includes a rock star guest and presents 2 life-changing pieces of advice in 30 minutes. Finding Jim Knight: Visit the website: https://www.knightspeaker.com Instagram: @Jimknightspeaker Listen to the podcast Thoughts That Rock Buy his book: Culture That Rocks To inquire about my coaching program opportunity visit https://mentorship.heathermonahan.com/ Review this podcast on Apple Podcast using this LINK and when you DM me the screen shot, I buy you my $299 video course as a thank you!  My book Confidence Creator is available now! get it right HERE If you are looking for more tips you can download my free E-book at my website and thank you! https://heathermonahan.com *If you'd like to ask a question and be featured during the wrap up segment of Creating Confidence, contact Heather Monahan directly through her website and don’t forget to subscribe to the mailing list so you don’t skip a beat to all things Confidence Creating! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm on this journey with me. Each week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals. We'll overcome adversity and set you up for a better tomorrow. I'm ready for my close-up. Hi, and welcome back. I'm so excited that you're here with me today. Thank you for being with me. I need you.

I have had quite a week, not a good one. Of course, we can't have all good weeks, as we know. and I know that I'm definitely not alone. I'm sure you're with me and that there are just some weeks that suck. And this has been one of them. So the week started off normally, started off fine, actually. And then suddenly, tragically, my son's puppy drowned in the pool. And it has been, since then, the last few days have just been a complete nightmare.

It's really been, you know, it's the first time my 13-year-old has suffered. from grief and loss and death, and it had been unexpected. I actually had said to him, wow, you know, at one point in a conversation I was having with him, geez, there are some things we can look to here, you know, when I first heard. I thought it was going to be one of your grandparents, you know. And he explained to me that what I found really interesting, he said, that wouldn't have been as jarring or shocking because you start to expect when people get older that things can happen, but when people are young and healthy, you don't ever anticipate that.

And as much as I was trying to comfort him, you know, he was right. And I really didn't know what to say there. It's one of those interesting things. When you're 45 years old and have gone through so much, I feel pretty equipped to handle basically anything that is thrown at me. And I'm not saying that's good because in some regards, I think it's really jaded that I've seen it all. Go ahead, throw it at me and I'm going to handle it. But this one, I just, I didn't have the words, and it felt awful. So I essentially just told him that I can't take the pain away.

And I do understand how heart-wrenching it is. But what I could do is promise to sit with him, to hold him, to be with him and to go through it with him. And that's what we're doing. So we actually made a great decision to leave home and go on a quick weekend trip with one of my really good friends and her son. And it's been great because it got him out of the house. It got him into the ocean. It got him on a boat. It got him on a jet ski.

It got him into activities which have gotten, you know, these little moments, these little breaks of sunshine in his really his sad time right now. So I have not seen or felt sadness like this and I don't even know how long. There is nothing like watching your child suffer. It is much worse than any pain. that I remember for myself other than when I was, you know, 15, 16, 17 years old, I remember looking back, because I've been reflecting about this a lot, things seem so much worse when you're younger because you don't have anything to compare it to. However, you know, you're in some ways

more hopeful and excited for things at that age because things are unexpected and new and the whole world is new, right? So there's this immense positive and then I guess this really potential downside looming. Well, I see it that way now that I see it that way now that I'm I've actually gone through this with him. I wasn't thinking about that before this happened. So time needs to pass, and obviously in time, he will learn to live with it and live with that idea of keeping someone in your heart and carrying them with you always. And we've been talking about that, although it's easier said than done when it first happens. One of my clients found out that this had happened and had actually seen a psychologist for someone, a child,

in his life when the same thing happened. And he was talking about some of the importance being around memorializing that animal's life and loss and, you know, if possible, doing something, even if it's just creating a picture or a portrait or something to showcase how special that person was and that they are still there in their life. And so we are going to do that. My son had actually asked to do that. He wants to have a giant picture of him blown up for his room.

And, you know, he came up with the idea to change his, his basketball jersey number to the date 14, the day that he had lost his dog. And so we're coming up with some different ways to make that special and memorable and rememberable, not forgettable. And I believe that's important. So I appreciated that feedback because I didn't know, again, never having gone through this with my son before. So this is life and sometimes life is just a bitch.

So the day that it happened, of course, I had a full day planned of meeting. and interviews and back to back. And my son was actually in his bedroom playing on his Xbox when I got the call. And one of the interviews I had set up for that day was with Seth Godin, who is someone I wanted to have on my show for since day one. I mean, he's the world's best and biggest marketer. He's very difficult to get a hold of. And I had finally secured an interview with him that day. So wouldn't you know, that happens. And I first sat with myself. for about an hour holding him. And when I was able to get him calm, I came out to my computer to send out four emails

to the four meetings I had back to back for the afternoon to cancel each one of them. And I basically said the same thing in each email I said, unfortunately, my son has just suffered a tragic loss of his dog by a sudden unexpected drowning. And I need to cancel my schedule for the remainder of the day so I can be fully present with him. I truly hope that we can reschedule in the future and that you understand. Thank you for your understanding. I sent basically that same email to everybody individually. And wow, you never know how people will respond, right? You don't know who people are until they're thrown in the fire, until they're thrown into the unexpected. And a day or two later, I don't even remember anymore

because this week is a blur. I checked my email and Seth had responded immediately, oh my gosh, this is horrible. I feel terrible for your son. I feel so much for what you're going through. Absolutely we can reschedule whenever you want, sending hugs and like, it was the nicest, most supportive understanding email. And it's interesting. I've never actually met him in person. I've consumed so much of his content. I've been to conferences where he's been a speaker. And he doesn't directly know me. He knows people I know and I know people he knows. But it was so interesting to me to receive that message back. I was so grateful for and just that gave me hope. There's good people out there. And sometimes they show up right when you need

them. So that was good. So the next day, I actually, I had a few one-on-one meetings with some of my clients and I really didn't want to reschedule with them. And they were late this next afternoon. So I said to my son, why don't you lay on the couch? I have this one area that's my living room and the TV room's one giant room. And I sit in there to do my Zoom meetings. And you, you're going to be. And you, Usually my son's not in that room. And I said, why don't you just lay on the couch, watch a movie? I'll sit right here and record. If you need me, just wave your hand and I'll disconnect and get off the call.

And he said that was fine. That would work. So what was different was I was on these meetings, which typically it's complete silence in the background. And now you could hear that the TV was on. I didn't care. Because, listen, my number one priority is my son. And if anyone said it was an issue, I would just say, well, let's reschedule for another time. But no one said anything like that.

However, I was on one of these meetings with one of my clients who knows me well. And about 10 minutes into the meeting, he says, something's wrong with you. I don't know what it is. He said, you're off, you're upset, you're cold. I don't know what's going on with you. And I didn't want to say because my son was sitting right there. So I just said, nothing, everything's fine. Well, wouldn't you know that person was bringing me in as a guest speaker for his company's quarterly meeting the next day? And I believe he was a little nervous because of how I looked, how I was speaking. And it was one of those interesting moments that if I had any energy in that moment, I would have laughed because I just know me and I know that, okay, I might be completely miserable right now and hanging on by a thread. However, I know that when the meeting launches in 24 hours and I have to go on and be the virtual guest speaker for this event, I will show up. And this comes from lots of bad things happening and lots of difficult times. of my life, I have had to show up and be at conferences where everything went wrong, where someone cussed me out, where, you know, where really difficult things were going on personally for me, but, you know, the show still had to go on and you still have to get on stage. And that's happened so

many times. It isn't even a thought that I wouldn't, right? And it was funny. So the next day, we were driving to the Keys and it was a really long car ride, four hours or something. And so I couldn't get any work done and whatever. It didn't matter. Anyway, I was just concerned about my son in the backseat and getting to the hotel, checking in, setting up so I could do the guest speaking for this company. And so we're driving down and I'm just listening to music and listening talking to my son and reminiscing about other trips we've had to the keys over the years. And it was actually we had a really good ride on the way down, talking about what we were looking forward to on the trip. And got, to the hotel, got checked in, got set up, set the computer up, set the Wi-Fi up, set the microphone up, you know, got all situated. And then I said, oh, gosh, I got to jot some notes down about what the objective is. And what I always like to do is say to myself, what is the overall goal of this conversation, this speech that I'm going to give. And so I thought to myself, based upon the feedback that I had heard from my client, because we had discussed it the day before, he really wanted to congratulate and acknowledge the efforts of the team. He wanted to, encourage them to move faster and achieve more for the next quarter, looking out Q3 and Q4. And he also wanted to address an issue that was new in their world, which was they had a new competitors show up that was just trying to undercut them and price was becoming an issue where it really hadn't been previously. So I wrote those three things down, recognized and congratulate.

number two was encouraged to move fast and break things. And number three was the price conversation. And so that's how I prepared. I'm mentioning this to you because years ago, that's not how I would prepare, right? Years ago, I would have sat down and probably put together PowerPoints and, you know, I would have been nervous and not trust myself. That's not how I operate anymore. I really trust myself. Again, in all fairness, I've been in sales. and sales leadership now for 25 years, more than that. And so I have a tremendous amount of experience. I can rely upon and trust within me, I will have the words, especially when I'm going into any type of an organization that is revenue generation focused, that's focused on sales teams and on

innovating and driving revenue. That's my thing. So sometimes you just have to trust yourself and stop overthinking because I see that happen with a lot of people. It used to happen with me, but it doesn't anymore. So I had my three bullet points and I dialed in. And once, you know, it was on, it was on. So I just, I was completely immersed. And thankfully, my good friend had taken my son and her son out for, they went to go parasailing while I was doing this. So they were doing something fun, which allowed me to breathe and not worry about my child. And I was actually excited for him because I know when you're really down and then all of a sudden you put yourself in a sort of new, scary situation like parasailing, you get so swept up in that moment. You're not really thinking

of anything else. So that was, I was excited actually. And I couldn't wait to hear how it went because he was a little nervous, which I thought was good. It's like one of those opportunities to step into your fear and see if you have fun, which of course he did. So the speech went amazing. And one of the things that I addressed that I want to share with you is number one, everybody needs to be recognized and being in good companies huge. Because when you're around people that are pushing you to grow and showing you what they can achieve and do, it motivates and inspires you and holds you accountable, right? Because nobody wants to show up on a team and not deliver when everybody else is. So I was acknowledging that, too, I was acknowledging, you know, move fast and break things. And I went back to

two different times in my career. One time when I did that and felt so proud and really felt I left a legacy behind. And one time when I didn't do that, where I sort of just, you know, played to the middle and wasn't proud and look back and feel like that was a loss of my time, not being my best, not growing, not innovating. And life's not about that, especially these days where we know how fragile life is the coronavirus and all the loss we've seen this year. So I talked about that. Then I got to the point, the conversation around price and how there is no conversation for price when you have a premium marquee product, which this company does. They have an amazing product. And I challenge them to shift the conversation. Don't have the price conversation.

In fact, focus solely on product and creating disparity between your product and the undercutters because they're not in your league. And you even allowing them to have that conversation that they are puts them in your league. So we're not going to do that. And instead, let's use some different analogies and talk about why there is a vast space and create more disparity between them. As well as people make decisions on emotion, right? And especially now people are fueled around trust and safety concerns. And poking some holes in that or suggesting, you know, fast forward five years from now, Jim, if you buy a product based on price and find out that jeopardize the safety of your employees

and or your customers, can you imagine what that would do to your brand? The brand you personally worked over 20 years to elevate, the brand that your company has had for 50 plus years, is that worth losing over saving a couple thousand dollars? These are the questions we really need to ask ourselves. You know, so we really talked through how you could handle that price objection, and I felt really good about the direction I gave them. I got some great feedback, and then I was off and done. And I was so, so grateful to have that done. Oh, my gosh, because I really had a heavy heart. And I would just went it all into that moment and left my feelings and emotions to the side so that I could deliver that talk, which random is so bizarre. But I've done it so many times now that I knew I could do it and you can do it too if you actually have to.

So hopefully you don't have to anytime soon because it's not fun to be having a week like this. However, we all have them and we will all continue to get through them. So hoping that your week is going better. Hope you enjoy this next interview. And I will be right back with you. Welcome back. I'm so excited. As I mentioned, we have Jim Knight.

He is the certified rock star. And the craziest thing, Jim, as I mentioned to you, offline is that one of the gentleman of my mentorship program told me I had to have you on this show because he was blown away in person by you and your speaking abilities. So I'm so grateful for you to be here. Thank you. Well, I appreciate it. And I will say that I'm mediocre at a lot of stuff. But one thing I have a strength is I can hold an audience. So at the very least in person, you know, our good friend Warren, yeah, I'm super happy that he said that. Let's hope it translates to a podcast, right? Well, I mean, I think you're underselling yourself a little bit, knowing that you actually

have your own podcast and I have quite a bit of experience interviewing. So we know it's going to be good. All right. I wanted to start with, I grew up in the service business. You know, I was busing tables, then I was working in fast food restaurants, then I was waiting tables, then I was bartending, ultimately leading me to sales. And I love that your story really begins and has that through line for the service industry and I was hoping to give us some insight in how you started out. Yeah, mine was sort of the same thing at an entry level. Actually, my very first job, although I will still say it's in the service industry, was at a local theme park. So I live in central Florida. I'm in Orlando. We have a lesser known theme park called Gatorland Zoo, which is an actual working

gator farm, but for 14 bucks, you can go in there and there's a whole bunch of fun stuff. I actually sold fish. I drove a little miniature train out there. I worked in the alligator boa constrictor area where we would put like a snake around somebody's neck and you can hold onto a baby alligator. What is this Joe exotic like in real time? It sounds like it, right? I'm sure we probably cross paths at some point. I doubt that actually. Mine was probably a little bit before his time, but I loved it. I mean, just having that service mentality that work ethic really got me into working at a little Italian restaurant here in the States called the Olive Garden. And Olive Garden was a great run for me. I did that for a couple years.

And although I was, you know, I went to school to be a musician and I was a middle school teacher for six years, my real love was in the hospitality industry. And I started working at a local hard rock cafe and that like you, I worked at a front line position. I was just a host and loved it. But I got to touch basically 7,000 people a day doing something crazy, like $35,000 hours, which is unheard of in hospitality. But, you know, your skills grow real quick.

And, you know, we can certainly talk about the service industry, but I think that that mentality, you talk about that through line, has really helped me out in any position. And honestly, I get access to a lot of data. And I'll tell you, the National Restaurant Association will tell you something like 65% of all Americans will work in that industry as a starting point. They may not end up there. They may, you know, might not be their career. They're going to go on to whatever it is their school major was or whatever. but you think about in this country, 65% of all people have worked in that industry, man, it just really helps out. I think when you go on to perhaps do something else in a different industry.

So you and I have that in common. I absolutely love that industry. Yeah, it's been amazing and it's been really good to you. How did you transition from being a server, being frontline, being, you know, in the hosting position to ultimately leading Hard Rocks training? I never really wanted to be a tipped employee, you know, which like you said, as a server, as a bartender that seems to be a goal that's where the money is. And then eventually, you almost take a pay cut to be a manager, right, because you're on salary and you're at the behest of whatever the general manager or the brand want you to be. I never really wanted to be a

tip employee. Like I said, I really, I liked being around people. I worked in probably the busiest restaurant in the world at that time in the early 90s. But I did think at some point I wanted bigger impact and influence. And so I did make the lead to be a manager. And I think I was very cognizant of fact that if I ever was to use my music degree, which I did get performance and education, and the work that I had done as a middle school teacher, that educational piece, I wanted to pull all of those levers, I knew that I was going to have to be a manager at some point. So I did that really for only about a year, year and a half, and then transcended over into the training and development world. That meant I came out of the cafes. I was working at the

corporate support center. And ultimately, when my boss left to go do something bigger and better, I was just sort of a natural to move into that role and wound up staying out of, I think, the 21 years, I think I can add up to about 16 being head of the training and development wing and loved it. And then from there, it was cafes, hotels, casinos, live music venues. It was global. And I got a chance to travel to about 60 or so different properties in some 30 different countries. So, you know, just really, again, that work ethic like you talked about, Heather, is it really kept me grounded when I became a manager and ultimately an executive. And now I got a chance to, I guess, see the world and hang out with some rock stars.

And somebody was paying me to do that and look and be and say whatever I wanted. So it was definitely a charmed life or at least a career, a lifetime career that I loved. Just absolutely loved. When you want more, start your business with Northwest registered agent and get access to thousands of free guides, tools and legal forms to help you launch and protect your business. All in one place. Build your complete business identity with Northwest today. Northwest Registered Agents has been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years.

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You're right. You know, I really want to be a rock star. I want to be like a lot of my friends who could play and sing, and I'd always been in community theater. I did when I was in high school. I was in chorus, you know, so there was a choral background. And actually, my degree is very formal. It's very opera, very church and community theater, if you will.

So, you know, nobody invites me up onto the stage when all my rock and roll friends are out doing stuff. But I will say that performance art side of me was always there, the educational side. And I knew this. When I was at college, I said, geez, for me to really make a living, I think you got to be really good at this. You've got to be a monster musician. And I just, I just wasn't. I mean, I could get by, but I wasn't really just crushing it. So I changed careers. I went into children's education. And again, I really thought maybe I'm going to be a music teacher. To your point, I think somewhere along the line, I get a chance to use both of those. But my real love was my first job. It was really working in restaurants and hotels and hospitality

in general. And so, yeah, I do pull all three of those levers and I created, I think, my own sort of career path. But along the way, when I was working at Hard Rock, that's where I really started to get people inviting me to sort of do a mini orientation, if you will, a little training program and come do it for their company. Started off in my backyard, somewhere in Orlando. But then after that, you know, someone's sitting in the audience. You know how it works, either it's somebody sees you and then they invite you to come speak at their company and how much do you charge? And all of a sudden, that's when the epiphany for me, the light bulb went off. And I thought, geez, I think I can make a career with this.

So it's funny because you do talk a lot about adversity when it comes to careers other than the fact that I'm a pretty youthful looking guy, which is awesome now. But it was a pain growing up. And I'm a short guy. I'm a pretty short dude. So, you know, getting people to take you seriously, that's sort of the only real adversity that I have. had growing up for my career trajectory. It's always been an awesome road, regardless that it was a long and winding road. It's exactly leading me to what I'm doing right now. In fact, I don't know that I'm going to do something else. What I'm doing right now is what I'm going to do the rest of my life.

That's a great point, though. You didn't hit adversity because you were following what your real passion was. And that's one of the things that I believe, I know for myself, I didn't follow any passion of mine. You know, I went the more traditional corporate America career route because I thought that's what I was supposed to do. And I know a lot of people follow that kind of linear path because they're afraid to step out of it. But it sounds like where you deviated is you never followed that traditional path. That's right. And I talk about this quite a bit. Either if I've got some time in a Q&A or certainly my book, I talk about these personal culture shifts. You know, we know organizations go through stuff like this all the time. There's some type of an inflection point where right when the company, the organization

starts to plateau, they got to figure out a way to sort of get that inflection point. What's the next gate? What's the next thing? How can I get more revenue stream? How can we reinvent ourselves every seven, eight years? In the marketing world, you're always told this. But I think humans go through this. I think at some point, mine naturally followed a path. I would sort of do something for a while and then I'd figure out this is either going to be something I can add to my quiver and it's going to be a part of me. It's like Shrek says, you know, right? It's layers, right? Or I've got to completely go in a different direction and it might be completely perpendicular to where I was going. So for me, I think it was just sort of a natural step. And again, I'm using all of this.

I'm using music education and hospitality to do what I'm doing. But it certainly wasn't, you know, I didn't grow up to say I'm going to be a keynote speaker. It just wasn't in the cards. I wanted to be a policeman or fireman or a paramedic like my dad was. You know, I was following that pathway. And when I went to school, I went to school with a purpose. I thought I was going to be using my degree like so many of us do. And you wind up doing something else. So you're right. I'm not sure that I had this ultimate passion at the end. What I did is I followed my passions, plural, and one led to another. And now it's the perfect, you know, for me, it's the absolute sound check. It's the perfect setup to doing what I'm doing right now. In fact, I don't even know what the next step would be.

I think this is it for me. And I'm super happy with it. That's amazing. I'd love to hear that. So good for you. And good for you in following your passions when so many people don't. And you created your own lane by incorporating those three things. There's not going to be a lot of competition when you're combining rock, music, education, and training.

Right? Because I haven't heard of anyone doing that. Well, I'm a good friend, Brandt Menzweir, who, you know, he's my co-host on our podcast. He's sort of taking the same approach. His was in more in your world. He was doing a lot of sales. And, you know, it was a rock star. He actually can play and perform extremely well.

And he was out on the road for like two decades. He sort of has taken the same approach. And I do see other people that will try and use some of this stuff as a tool, as a crutch. They use it as sort of an element in their stuff. When it's a part of your DNA and it's just sort of authentically been a part of you, it sure makes it a whole lot easier. I think when you're trying to parlay some information to some people, whether it's in person or like we're doing now or from a distance.

I mean, now you and I are probably doing more virtual stuff than anything else. So luckily, I think that performance mindset really does come across where the word that you use that I love, that edutainment, I think is what people need today. It can't be one or the other. I think you need both. It's hard. It's hard because for me, virtually, I've had to make that pivot to doing virtual keynotes. And it's very different, not having the energy in the room, not having that connection. and even just for people having Zoom meetings, right?

There is, there's that different feel. And so how can you still bring your light to the party in a way that's going to be entertaining, however you're still imparting knowledge? That can be a challenge for a lot of people. How do you get around that? You know, it's tough. I think you're right. And I think my first natural mindset, especially when the coronavirus started happening here in the States,

let me just do what I do on stage in front of a camera at a distance. And that's not necessarily going to work because I couldn't at that time. I could still do some of it, but I couldn't show the videos I wanted to do. The more participatory things that I thought would be interesting, I'm not really having people write things down. I can't put my hand on the shoulder. Like all the stuff that I would have done that would have made it really interesting or more interesting, you now have to think I've got this little box frame.

And so I think to your point, my energy, absolutely still going to be there. I'm going to bring the thunder. I am absolutely going to be as much as I possibly can, but you got this little amount of space. And you really can't go an hour, hour and a half keynotes. Like people are needing some 15, 20 minute, bite-sized truncated pieces.

So now you've got to take the best of. I will say that I've gotten so much better having upped my virtual game. You make sure you have the right camera and the right microphone and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But from a pure performance standpoint to what you're talking about, I still know that the audience out there, and by the way, the

majority of the audience that I'm now spending more time with are pretty middle of the road industry. So I'll give you a quick point. I thought that honestly, when I jumped from Hard Rock in 2012, I thought that I'd be doing mostly hospitality stuff, restaurants, hotels, a little bit of retail. I am so far from that now. It is, it is honestly banking, insurance, real estate, funeral directors of my number one clients. I do a lot of stuff with, the Air Force now. So if you think about, you know, trotting out the hair and the blue jeans and the rock and ball, it probably is some shock and off for people. It probably freaks them out. So there's a little bit of that entertainment and I try and use it. However, I know exactly what they're thinking

too. I got to get past the fun, the charm, the funny, whatever it is. They need the meat potato. So to the point that you're making, you really have to find the balance. I got to walk the line to say, how can I get them to push back from the table going, holy crap, that's exactly what I wanted. That was awesome. Great use of my time. Oh, and by the way, we had some yuck yucks along the way versus either standing up there and do a song and dance and your funny guy or funny girl and there's nothing of substance to it or vice versa. You're up there because of your title, because of the logo, you know, that you're associated with, maybe the amount of letters in front of your name and you're boring as all get out. You know, you may as well have just sent me the PowerPoint or

or whatever the equivalent is. So I think, you know, the performance at edutainment is so key to speakers today. You can't be, like I said, one or the other. I think you got to have elements of both. So how did you transition just from more of the hospitality type industry into a variety of industries? Well, I started saying yes to everything. I mean, anybody who asked me to speak, I mean, at the beginning, I probably was only known

in hospitality. And again, because of the hard rock name and the fact that I traveled, probably got my foot in the door in a lot of places. But I knew that somebody in the back of the room, like I said, was working for, I don't know, John Deere tractors, and they ask you to come out and speak. And then next, it's the refrigeration association. Then it's the funeral directors association of North America. Next thing you know, you're in all kinds of places. And then eventually, although I was hunting and looking for engagements, a lot of them were sort of falling in my lap because the word had gotten out there in other industries. But I think it was,

really when I started to spend more time with Speaker Bureau. So I'm exclusive with the Speaker Bureau right now. And I don't have to do a tremendous amount of work. You know, I'm still doing 35 to 40 engagements a year. And I get an email every week or every other week that just says firm offer. Here's the engagement. Here's where you need to be. Here's the money. Here's the topic that they picked. You know, and that's only because we've spent enough time together and their agents know exactly what we're looking for. And if you get to the point that you've got great ratings. Now when people are calling up for the bureau saying, who do you have? Who's your new shiny toy? Who's in this price range? Who talks about these topics? They're not just going through a

rolodex of speakers. Now, you're top of mind. You're at least in the top one, two, or three. And it gives the agent an opportunity to sell your name out there a little bit more. So, you know, now, you know, some of these associations, it would blow your mind to not you, because you do this. I think it would blow your audience as mine to think, wow, there's an association for that. Yeah. And they get together. When they do, they're looking for sometimes an outside speaker. When that happens, I want to be their guy or their girl. I always go back to it.

It's shocking how much we actually don't know for whatever one bubble we're living in. Mine was in the media and advertising bubble. We didn't pay speakers. So I didn't know there was a speaker business. No one pays speakers there, right? So if you're living in one small world and limiting yourself to that, you're really limited on what's happening out there. and the speaking business is massive.

It was mind-blowing for me. The first time I took a stage and found out the person standing next to me made $100,000 for the same hour I got paid $10,000 for. And that was a learning experience, you know, and to say, wow, there's a lot more upside here that I can start going after. So when you are looking at the topics and learnings people are leaning into you for, what are some of those? What can you share with us?

Yeah, my topics are probably the same three or four. And I've been looking to expand a little bit more, certainly right now, where we've got a lot of things that are going on in society here in the U.S. and actually globally, but for the most part, because people know me and I'm associated with hard rock, you're probably going to get more around the culture, service, employee engagement type stuff. All mine is branded. So it follows my book, culture that rocks, service that rocks, engagement that rocks.

Right now, the real big focus and what I'm seeing, almost any group is happy if you're talking about leadership. I do have a course and a webinar and I am working on my next book called, as you can imagine, leadership that rocks. And I think that that really helps me out a lot to now go back to the well, talk to some of these other clients that have already done stuff for. Perhaps they've already gone through the main keynotes. Now, if we get into workshop oriented stuff, and you talked about this earlier because of my training and development background, I can help people handle guest complaints or do a brand new interview or how to have tough conversations.

conversations with people or maybe coaching council employee, like all of these tactical, technical things. Yes, I can do that. There's probably 10, 15 of those. But really, people now are looking for great educating keynote speakers. And so for me, culture, service engagement, leadership, a little bit around performance management. Those are the key ones. But I'm telling you, I was at an event where it just had speaker authors there. And there's a couple communities, believe it or not, we do the same thing as everybody else. We get together and talk about our. world and there was somebody that was there from a speaker bureau that had been asked to come in as a keynote speaker for this group and one of the brand new speakers they were just now getting started

on their own they asked that exact same question what is it that you think audiences are looking for more than anything else and sure enough he said i don't care how fancy or cool or whatever your title or your topic or what you look like if you have the word leadership in your session you're going to win people are starting to make some selections over that more than anything else. Now that was before, I think the things that are going on now, I think to your podcast, your fan base, people are looking, you know, how do I deal with adversity? How can I face my fears? How can I overcome whatever major obstacles are going on? How can I get to my goals? Like some of that will transcend regardless of what's going on today, but I think that leadership is

always going to be a winner. And so I definitely know that that's a part of something that I could do. if you came to me and said, how can I increase check averages at a restaurant? No, that is not my wheelhouse and I don't want that to be. Somebody else probably does that much better than me. But those four or five, that tends to be my focal points. What are some of the teachings that you can share around how you take people's leadership ability to the next level? Yeah, you know, so I really focus a lot on the people that are working for you. So when it comes to leadership, you know, there's so many books and websites.

and, you know, speakers actually on this topic. So you've got to pick your battles as to what you can do. But I do focus a lot on communicating. I think leaders in general think they're really good communicators when, in fact, they're not. Maybe unless they've surrounded themselves with a bunch of awesome people who are, they tend to hold stuff close to the vest. They don't share as liberally as we would probably like. The more that you can get down to the front line level, whatever that employee,

associate, team member, you name it. If they're in the know, all of a sudden, you've created. and some brand ambassadors. They're more likely to take the hill with you to get the result that you're looking for and then some because they're in the know. You've given them something bigger, I think, than the day-to-day making the donuts. So I think communication is something we can talk about. And again, I'll do it in a fun way.

I'll use some band and brand analogies. I do a lot of music orientation. But at the end of the day, the takeaway is you've got to communicate better. The second I alluded to, you've got to surround yourself with an army of giants. I think this is where probably some leaders do very well. At the very least, they might have a right-hand girl or guy that can really whisper in their ear, almost as a mentor, even though they're doing some upward delegation, but to surround yourself with people who have your best interest in heart and can actually say,

I think you're making a bad decision. Or we ought to step back and think about this. Somebody somewhere has to have that group, you know, this group of people, whoever that inner circle is, you need to surround yourself with these fantastic people. And then at the core, honestly, I don't even care what the product is. And I say this with love in my heart, regardless of people are selling widgets, it's never about the thing. It's not even about the environment. It's about the people.

It's about the humans. It's always been about human behavior. So the goal is don't focus so much on the thing. Even if you're first to the market, even if you're crushing it compared to everybody else, the goal is, You've got to get spectacular people. You know, if you can find some rock stars out there, they will help you perpetuate the brand for all time. And again, I think more people are starting to focus on this today. There's just too many awesome brands out there that we can point to.

But go back in time, 25, 30, 40 years ago, people like me that would throw down the culture card and say, oh, we need to do this because it would be cool and fun and the right thing to do. That's laughable back then to a CEO. They would be laughing at me saying, it's not tied to business. results. It's not part of our strategy. But now I think you can absolutely put a little bit more when it comes to culture, when it comes to service. And that only happens with people. It doesn't happen by accident. So those are kind of the three things. I'd say you got to communicate better. You got to surround yourself, at least from an executive level, if you're an entrepreneur,

or a business owner, or even a middle manager, whoever the managers are below you, make sure those core people are fantastic to help you out. But ultimately, don't focus on the thing. you've got to focus on getting the right people to absolutely bring something spectacular. You know, all the best training in the world is not going to help a bad hire. So I would, I'd spend a lot of energy on hiring. You know, and again, I guess the fourth thing might be retaining people. I won't spend a lot of time on that, but we spend so much time complaining about perhaps you don't have the right ones. Fix the front end of the employee cycle first.

Find rock stars. But then, of course, the second part is hold on to them. You've got to love on them a little bit more and get them to stay with you. And then you'll be unstoppable. you'll produce Herkulean results. I know that's a long answer, but you know, try and give me as much as I can. I agree with everything you said, however,

because I've been in a very specific situation that is so interesting based upon what you just described, which is when the actual CEO isn't confident in themselves, when the CEO isn't prepared to handle that person whispering your ear, listen, that's not going to work. Here's another opportunity. Here's what the team's saying. Here's what's going on out throughout the organization.

when you're living in when those environments where the emperor wears no clothes, right, but no one's allowed to say it, holy cow, get out of that company. Yeah, it's tough. It's so funny that you say that, Heather, I usually get around four questions at the end of a session. It's usually what other topics do you do? Do you do any consulting? What kind of hair care products do you use? That comes up every once in off.

But the fourth one, probably my most requested is I'm just a middle manager or I'm a vice president. I'm not in charge of the thing. Can I really absolutely make a difference? And I do think you can. I spend a lot of time talking about, again, I use the language upward delegation. I think a single person with a great idea can start a revolution, a cultural revolution. That's how that's how countries were overthrown. That's how philanthropic movements are created.

But I think that's how some tectonic shifts can happen in a culture. However, if the CEO, if the top person, he or she just absolutely stinks and they're not going anywhere, it's going to be an uphill slog. And unless you're on some island in the middle of nowhere and you can sort of create your own destiny, it's too tough. And I think you can make the best of it, but you're right.

I think you've got to keep a wandering eye to say, what kind of brand would I want to work for or create? Maybe that's where the entrepreneurial spirit inside of you comes up. But I do think that you can create your own bubble. Listen, I had a fantastic environment that I worked in, but I had a crappy boss at one time. You know, working in the Orlando Hard Rock Cafe, a word for a general manager who just did not care for me being there because I was getting paid out of

the corporate support center. I was an entity that was thrown on to this person's management team. Whatever that was an opening, I got to go and do that and travel and hang out with all the people on the other side of the planet. And then I'd come back and run shifts. And so this person just didn't like that. And so they'd put me on the worst shifts possible. I had no department responsibilities. But in my mind, I thought, you know what, in lieu of leadership, I'm going to lead. And so my shifts were absolutely a blast. I would either create contests or fun or do my pre-meetings. We call them pre-shifts outside or underneath a piece of memorabilia or get other people. When that person wasn't around, I just had an absolute blast.

But I also knew full well, as long as this person is here, I'm probably not going to be able to move up. And ultimately, I outlasted the person. That person is not even with the company anymore. So I do think you're going to struggle if the top person isn't in that same mindset. But I still think a single person with some great ideas, you can start a cultural a revolution, no doubt. Starting the year with a wardrobe refresh, Quince has you covered with luxe essentials

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That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash confidence to get free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash confidence. I agree with you firsthand having lived that experience. However, I did learn the hard way. And I had some bad bosses, right? And I said, I don't care. I'm in charge of the sales organization. can make this, you know, the best performing sales organization in the industry and made it happen.

However, you can only control an impact so much and you just have to pay attention to what that threshold is because there are so many people. I was one of them that just wanted so badly to impact and create change and, you know, just knew that it was going to work and get, when you get so excited and invest in something and know that potential, you don't want to see that some obstacles actually cannot be overcome. And just that one in my mind, that it's crystal clear, if you have a CEO at your company that is fine with toxic environments, that is fine with, you know, corporate BS and political games, that is the culture. And you might be able to change your one department. But in the end, for your next move, move on to another organization,

or like you said, move on to your own, create your own thing because you don't want to be banging your head against that wall. 100%. I am with you 100%. And we've done that. Both you and I have done that. Yeah, but that hasn't been easy either in that I was so used to, And I know you were too. When you're in a corporate environment, you have massive teams of support and massive assistants and people you can reach out to for, you know, IT help or whatever it may be. And then suddenly going from that to working for yourself alone. Wow.

That's a seismic shift. Well, and you said it best too. I think it's easy for me and probably for both of us to say one thing. But there might be people in the audience thinking, I need this job. Like I have only a specific skill set. I fell into this gig for whatever reason. I need the benefits because I got kids. You know, my husband, wife, you know, significant other, whatever it is, aren't working, whatever it is.

It's not easy to just say if it's not working for you, you need to bail. But to your point, I think you can have the mindset, you know, maybe it's a year from now. The plan is I've got an exit strategy. I'm going to find something that I will either fall madly in love with and I'll go and work for a person that fits my values or I'm just going to start my own thing. And maybe it's two years, maybe it's five years, whatever it is. It's not easy to just say, ah, you need to bail out of the thing. But you're also going to be miserable if you stay there. You're going to look back five, 10, 15 years and go, why did I do that?

Why did I spend all of, you know, you spend more waking time at work than you do anywhere else? Why would you want to spend time somewhere where you weren't madly in love with it? And you didn't appreciate the boss. Listen, I worked for a Marriott residence in. I love that brand, but I worked there's a housekeeper for three hours. I just knew that wasn't my gig. I gave it my shot and it wasn't because of a person. I just knew that that wasn't for me.

I'm either very short term. I decide very quickly where I'm a long term. I'm usually three to seven years and Hard Rock. It was a little bit different. It was a couple decades. But in general, I had to have a boss that supported me or I'm just not going to be there long. That's just way it is. And I do think people are getting better.

I think brands are getting better. It does shock me honestly when I see somebody who is still trying to muscle results and stomp on people and get what they're looking for through threats and punishment and fear. It blows my mind that that still exists because the kids today, I say the kids, not just the millennials, Gen Z, my kids that are now working in the industries, they'll laugh at you. They will just totally just leave and go somewhere else because they can. If they're a rock star, rock stars can always get another gig. So I'm with you.

I don't think people should be wasting their time. If you're stuck somewhere and you think you've got to have this job right now, That's cool. Totally get that. But start looking to see what is the future look like for you? Where can you start to make those moves that in six months a year, two years from now, you're in a much better, healthier environment? Oh, that's so the best advice. Jim, tell us where can everybody find you, where can they get your podcast? How can we get a hold of you? Oh, thanks for asking. Yeah, I think all roads lead to my website, which is my last name is Knight, K-N-I-G-H-T.

It's knightspeaker.com. You'll see a whole bunch of information on there about my speaking. stuff in my book already talked about culture that rocks you can grab it through there it is a how to business book you know it's got a lot of like i said music orientation and some fun rock and roll stuff but i'm looking to really give people some needy stuff to take with them my podcast is called thoughts that rock and that's a free weekly podcast that i do with my co-hus brant menswear we have people from all walks life on there and the goal is we try and provide two pieces of life-changing advice in about 30 45 minutes and we've had some of our similar guests on uh on each other other shows on yours either as well.

But I'm just having a blast doing what I'm doing. But thank you so much for the opportunity. Well, thanks for being here. I appreciate it so much. And we'll be right back. And we're back. And I am answering a couple of really good questions that came in this week that I wanted to share with you.

Okay. I've been getting a lot of questions on LinkedIn DMs from people about basically I've been fired. I've been furloughed. I've lost my job due to COVID. you know, do you know anyone that's hiring in blah, blah, blah industry? And what they're saying is basically sort of, it would have been like if when I got fired from radio, me saying, I need another radio job.

Well, the difference is I had signed a non-compete, which these people haven't. It's a little different, but it would have been the same thing, right? So saying you get furloughed or laid off from X industry and you want to stay in X industry. The first thing I respond back to everybody is, why do you want to stay in that industry? Why? Is this your goal career? Is this your dream life? Were you living your best life loving every day?

No, of course they weren't, right? I wasn't either. And I get it, but it's just what we know. And so often people just want to stay in the what we know, the familiar zone, which is death zone, in my opinion, now that I've stepped out of it. So one thing I want to share with you is open your eyes and pick your head up beyond your one little bubble,

your tiny little world you live in. I've done that. I've made that leap. And now I realize it's vast what is available out there to you. But for so long, I lived in just the radio media bubble, nothing outside of it, completely unaware of what was happening outside that industry. And I really challenge you, look beyond whatever it is the niche you own, the industry that you're rocking, that you really feel like this is your space.

Pick your head up and start learning about other industries out there. And you can do that through talking to other people, reading trades. There's so much available to you. Just please challenge yourself to do that because I can't tell you how many of these messages I'm getting right now. I really want to challenge people beyond that. That's the opportunity to look beyond what else is possible out there instead of stay head down and just what you've been doing.

Okay. So I've got a DM on LinkedIn. I'm a certified professional life coach. I've signed with a publishing company finishing a book. And right now I'm finding myself unemployed due to COVID. And I'm trying to find a job but really find a career because I have a high level of income. It's not just about finding a jump.

It's about my career growth. This has been super hard. I'm panicking. I can just hear in this person's voice in the way they're right. Okay, not good. This is not a time to panic. And I understand, I was there. Hello, I was there. So, and I tell people that having been there, this is the time we've got to calm yourself down. You've got to breathe, find people in your life that calm you down, that support you and encourage you, right? Get rid of everybody else. Claim your space. Put yourself first and let people know what you need

right now. I remember I said to my son, right now is not the time to come to mom with issues. If you need to deal with issues right now, please speak to your father. I've got to take care of myself. I mean, I really let everyone in my life know, here's what's going on. I need a month. I need to get my thoughts together. I need to care for myself. I need to calm myself so I can find solutions because I know I am my most creative, my most powerful, my strongest when I'm taking care of me, when I'm sleeping, when I'm working out, when I'm journaling, when I'm doing things that help me to feel good, whether it be Peloton, whether it be running, whether those are the things that were for me. Maybe for you it's meditation. Maybe for you it's listening to music. I don't know, but you've got to step

into whatever that is for yourself. Okay. Hey, Heather, I know what I need to do, keep my mindset straight, cry it out, freak out, and get back up. And that's what I tell my clients and now I'm telling it to myself. I'm a single parent, so I am falling back to fear. I totally get in respect that too. Anyway, I feel like I'm being pulled to do what I do best and really what has been my dream, making the coaching business the full-time position and helping others and finishing my book, creating a speaking platform, basically a lot of what you do. I know you have had fears and challenges as well and I can relate to the haters. I've got those two. Yeah, that must mean you're doing something, right? Okay. I was wondering if you would have time to speak to me about this.

So I respond to the person. Well, tell me, what is the question that you have? I'll answer in my podcast, of course. Okay. Well, when starting out, I know the obvious answer is to stop over analyzing and just jump in and believe in your vision. But when faced with immediate financial needs income, other than me saying, okay, I'll jump, but God, will you provide and then hope it works out? What would be a few strategies for launching fast for an immediate ROI? Okay. So here's how I'm going to respond to that. Yes, I was in the same situation. Yes, I'm a single parent. Yes, I was panicked. I was all those things, right? So I've been there and other people have been there too. And I'm going to always go back to this. 97% of people will go to work for the three

that had the courage and ability to leap and figure it out along the way. That is hard. There is nothing easy about it. There is nothing safe about it. I still live in that space now and I'm almost three years in working for myself. Here I am. I'm on a weekend away and I'm in the hotel room recording my podcast, right? Well, everybody else is out at the beach. When you work for yourself, you are working all the time. And it is not easy. And it is super scary. And when the pandemic my entire speaking business evaporated. And I had to reinvent my company overnight. And I was petrified. And I cried. And I got scared. And I got on the Peloton. And I started coming up with solutions and ideas and brainstorming. And then I started posting. And then I created this program. And I launched my

mentoring program, May 1st. And that program killed it. And I guaranteed the results. I did 100% money back guarantee, which I still offer now. And in my June program, I took the pricing up. As I saw, people were getting amazing results and they weren't even blinking at the price. And I had amazing results in June. I did the same thing in July and we're having amazing results in July. And that's when I decided I have to launch an executive level high ticket coaching program because I'm working with C-suite executives. I'm also working with stay-at-home moms. I'm also working with salespeople. I'm working with people in a broad spectrum. But there are some people that when I am giving them strategies that they're implementing their companies, they're seeing substantial revenue gains. Well, it's got to be

worth my time and valuable to them, as valuable to them as it is to me. So I launched my high ticket one-on-one coaching, executive coaching program. And I offer 100% guaranteed money-back results. And, you know, I went all in on this. And now I've really begun to pivot and change my business, which has been exciting and rewarding in a very different way in this new coronavirus way where you can't really travel. Right. So there's never going to be a time until you're many years in where you're, you've got things established. And even then when the next pandemic hits or the next whatever hits, you're going to be faced with these challenges. You have to make the decision. You have to sit alone in the dark and decide, is this worth going all in on? Five years from now, when you look

back on this time in your life, will you say, I am so glad I took a safe job, quote unquote, safe job back in corporate America working for someone else? Or will you say, I'm so proud of myself, I took the scariest leap of faith and went all in on me? And here's the thing. No one can make that decision for you. No one. You are the only person that has that answer. I don't have that answer for you.

I'm not sure if this is the right leap for you. If being an entrepreneur is what you should do, only you can answer that. You need to get real with you. And so what I did was I looked at my savings. I looked at how much runway I had and I just said to myself, I need a product to sell the day that I got fired or two days later, whatever it was.

And I said, I know I can sell. So look at what. what you're great at, right, and lean into that. And I said, if I can find something to sell, I can make money. And that's all I knew. So I thought, okay, speed to market. I'm going to write a book. I can do that fast. I can, I'll figure out a way to flip and self-publish this thing faster than anybody has, and I believe I did. And I wrote Confidence Creator, and I brought that book to market. And then I Googled, How Do You Sell Books? And I saw speaking engagements was one of the top ways. And I thought, oh, my gosh, easy. I'm a great speaker. I've been doing it forever. And I started cold, calling

businesses like a maniac. I'd call probably 50 companies a day and offer to come and speak for free. My goal was to sell that audience everywhere I went my book, and it worked. And so I started driving revenue. So I just went all in. And then that opened my eyes to this whole new business that I didn't know existed, the speaking business. And then I started getting paid $10,000 of speech. Suddenly, I wasn't there to hustle the books. I was there for my speaker fee, right? Yes, the books were selling and now it was great, but I was making less money on the books, a lower price, and lower cost item and making more money. And then I started getting paid more for my speaking engagements.

And then more referrals came in. Then I learned about agents. And then I started pitching myself to eight. But what I'm trying to explain to is there's levels and tears of I didn't know any of this. I had to jump and create a product and start running with that product to learn about these other opportunities. That's what led me to the podcast. That's what led me to creating an online course.

That's what led me to giving my TED talk. All these things I didn't know about. about the day that I was leaping. I just knew if I can create a product, I will find a way to sell it. So ask yourself those questions. Know this. I didn't know I was going to do all these things. I didn't know I'd have a podcast.

I didn't know I'd sign with Harper Collins leadership for my second book. I didn't know that I would give a TED talk. I didn't know that I'd launch online executive coaching programs. I didn't know any of these things. And it's funny. Recently, I was looking at my website with someone. And when I launched my website, my website was supposed to just be about being in the C-suite in corporate America, because I launched it the last year I was a chief revenue officer, and sharing the tips and hacks that I had created and come up with in order to break the glass ceiling to help other people do the same thing. That was it. So when you launch with that initiative, let me tell you three years later, when you have a book that you sell on the site, when you have executive one-on-one coaching programs on the site, when you have a confidence video course on the site, when you have a mentoring team program on the site,

when you have a TED Talk on the site, when you have a speaker business on the site, when you have a podcast on the site, when you have, you're getting the gistice. In three years, my company has evolved so flipping much. My website can't support it anymore. And I'm giving you that visual so that you understand the day that you leap, the day that you go all in on this, we don't know what's ahead of you. You don't know what's ahead of you. I didn't know what it was ahead of me. I still don't know what's ahead of me. I'm getting into a partnership right now with Harper Collins leadership. I've never worked with a publishing house before. This is all new. I don't know where this is going to take me. That's sort of the beauty of it. It's stepping into the uncertainty and finding peace in the uncertainty. It's so crazy and so completely polar opposite than being in corporate America. However, I will always go back, to this. You are not safe in corporate America. I always thought I was safe. It's well lit. It's linear. BS. At any point in time, a pandemic can hit and half of the staff will be let go. At any point in time, you might be working for a non-visionary CEO and the company goes under or is delisted or is bought by

another company. New leadership comes in. You're out. Know this. You will only ever be secure when you are in charge of driving your revenue, when you believe in yourself, when you are confident in you. I am not confident in what's happening out in the world, but I can tell you this. I go all in on me. I am confident in me, because I continue to get back up, believe in me, and step into the value, the unique value that I bring. I won't have a price issue with competition because I don't have any. And create that space for yourself. Be that unicorn. What is it that's so unique about you? Get testimonials and reviews and rock them. What product and service can you sell? Can you guarantee your result? Figure out a way that you can't be beat. Step into it, own it, and flipping go for it. What is the worst that happens? And I hear you, you're a single mom, you're a single parent, and you don't know how you can handle it financially. I didn't either. And I swear some days, on bad days, I start to question it again. It doesn't go away entirely, right? It's about getting back to your center. Why are you doing it? what can you do differently? How can you have speed to market? What product can you sell? How can you

showcase those reviews and testimonials and put them to work for you? So ask yourself those questions. Get real with yourself and figure out what your answer is. My answer was to leap. It was the scariest thing professionally I've ever done. However, I'm super grateful that I did it and I'm so proud of myself. So whatever decision you make, I'm here, I'm sure you'll be with me. me weekend and week out. I hope you keep me updated. So ask yourself that question, get real, and let me know what your answer is. Okay, the next question I got was around how do you self-publish a book. Here's the thing. You guys, if you know me, you know this. I Google everything. I'm not saying I have some master cheat sheet on life. I don't know. I didn't even know how to write a freaking book.

I had to Google. Was it even legal for me to write a book if you weren't an English major or whatever? I didn't know. I was an executive in media. I didn't know if I could write a book. So the first thing was sit down being disciplined about writing and just get it on paper. Number two, hire someone ahead of you that's done it before. I hired an editor who had written 19 books. He was way ahead of me. He helped me figure out how to map the book out, how to lay the book out, and how to improve it beyond where I had it.

Then I googled, how do you self-publish? I found a company called Scribe Media. There's actually an entire episode that I did about this. So if you are interested in more detail around self-publishing, go to the episode with J.T. McCorm, And check it out because he's the president of Scribe Media. He has become a friend and really was great for me to work with. I was brand new in the self-publishing business, had no idea. I didn't have any contacts, which stunk, right?

Because I just left the media world where I had a million contacts and my name really carried some weight. And then here I was as this nobody in the book business. And things went wrong, right? The cover came out wrong. There was a delay. the gosh, there's so many issues that arose. However, in the end, I am so proud of the book that I have. It's got three mistakes in it, and done will always be better than perfect. I love my

imperfect book, and I love the impact that it has on people's lives, and I'm super proud of that work. So for me, I worked with Scribe Media because they offer an al-a-cart business. I already had the book done. I didn't need someone to write it for me. I found my own editor. I had that done, but I didn't know how to find an ISBN number or how to upload it into Amazon or how to utilize a strategy to make it a bestseller. I didn't know any of those things. However, there are plenty of people out there that do, people that had been in the book business their whole career, like my friend J.T. McCormick. So again, if you are really interested in detail on self-publishing, check out that episode with J.T. McCormick. Or feel free to just reach out to describe media.

You're more than welcome to drop my name. but, you know, they have an alacart option. So if you want a ghostwriter, they've got one for you. If you simply have a book that's done and you want them to help with the cover design, they've got that for you. If you just need ISBN layout and uploads to Amazon or if you want hardcover books, they'll point in that direction. So they really were that conduit for me, that middle person to help me connect the dots.

Yes, I still had to pay for all of the hardcover book runs and, you know, figure out how many hardcover books I actually wanted. And there are price point differences and deals around how many books you buy. And it was just navigating murky waters for me. But I'm really grateful for the direction and support they gave me. They were a great partner. There's many companies out there, by the way. This is the one that I worked with.

I thought they were great to work with. And there's plenty of others. So do your homework. But then just pull the trigger, take action, and bring it to life. Because everybody's got a book within them. And the world deserves to hear your message or at least have access to it. So make the call, check out the company, pull the trigger, bring the book to life. I'm so glad I did.

And if you have not checked out my team coaching program yet or my executive coaching yet, you can go to my website, Heather Monaghan.com. There's a drop down for my video course. There's a drop down for my team coaching program, my monthly team coaching program. You can sign up for the August program now. And there's always the ability to fill out the form and talk to me directly about the one-on-one executive coaching, which I'd love to have you, up for, check out my testimonials. They are amazing. All right, so I hope this episode was helpful to you.

I hope I answered your questions. And as always, you can shoot me any questions at my website, Heather Monaghan.com or on any social media at Heather Monaghan. Would love to hear what you think of the show. Please leave me a rating and review and share with your friends. It would mean the world to me. Until next week, keep creating your confidence. I'll be right here running alongside.